LEEPER GRAPPLING WITH DOWNFALL OF HIS IDOL, CHARGED WITH MURDER

His has been, for years, the glorious and inspiring identity of the Paralympics. The mere mention of it, though, causes the ebullient Blake Leeper to drop his shoulders and lower his head.

Indeed, the tragic subject that inevitably comes up in questions isn’t just extremely disheartening for Leeper, but tricky for a young man who has held Olympic star Oscar Pistorius up in the highest regard.

Pistorius, who actually reached the semifinals of the 400 meters at the 2012 Olympics in London, is facing a murder trial in Pretoria, South Africa. He’s charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, on Feb. 14.

“I was sick to my stomach, to see that happen to a guy who’s meant so much to the sport,” Leeper said. “We don’t know exactly what happened, but this is a blow for all of us. To the world, Oscar was the face of what we do. I was just somebody riding his coattails.

“For me, not having a name, when people ask me what I did, I’d mention Oscar. I’d say, ‘That’s the guy I’m chasing.’ Now I have to restructure. I have to be my own person. I didn’t expect it to come this quick, but it’s my time.”

As a child with prosthetics serving as lower legs and feet, Leeper said his idol was multisport superstar Bo Jackson, mostly because Jackson returned to professional sports after replacement surgery with a titanium hip. Jackson thus showed a boy with no feet in northeast Tennessee what was possible through science and tenacity.

But it was the sight of Pistorius on twin “Cheetah” blades on TV that told Leeper what he could do — no, must do — with his own life. Leeper further related to Pistorius when he learned that the South African, like him, had been born without fibulas and had both legs amputated below the knee.

“He’s like the Jackie Robinson of our sport, the trailblazer,” Leeper said. “He’s been my hero, then one day I’m running the 100-meter finals in (the 2011 IPC world championships in) New Zealand, right beside him. He understood that I wasn’t there yet, but he took the time to mentor me.”